Chugach National Forrest
5 hrs 40 min roundtrip, August 16, 2011
Tuesday, August 16th, provided a single nice day sandwiched between a lot of rainy days. I decided to knock off from work early and go for a climb. Initially, I had planned to climb Crow Peak, but as it was still fogged in I diverted my attention to Blueberry Hill at the end of Turnagain Arm.
I had tried Blueberry Hill once before this year (May 28th). On that attempt I had to trn around some 3-400 yards shy of the summit due to bad snow conditions (corniced summit ridge).
The lower parts of this mountain provides ample bushwhacking (typical for this part of the Chugach) with lots of Devil's Club. However, if you are lucky you'll find a path through the hemlocks that is not too bad. Most likely you'll find some of both. The map below shows what I believe is the best route for this "hill".
You know you are on the Blueberry Hill ridge proper once you get to the communication repeater. From here the ridge flattens (for a while) and provides some of the nicest ridge-tundra hiking anywhere in the Chugach.
Looking West out the Turnagain Arm and Cook Inlet. Penguin Ridge is in the center of the picture.
Another view along the summit ridge. The summit ridge provided fun scrambling over and around a number of false summits and gendarmes.
Looking Northeast from the summit towards the 20-mile glacier terminal lake and Carmen Lake.
Summit ridge rocks.
Blueberry Hill in the late evening seen from the communication repeater.
Panorama from Northeast to Southeast. 20-mile lake and Carmen lake on the left. Boggs and Begich peaks in the middle. 20-mile river, Portage river and Placer River on the right. The Blueberry Hill false summit is on the far right. Turnagain Pass can be seen on the very far right side of the picture (Blueberry Hill is a very impressive mountain seen from Turnagain Pass).
1 comment:
I caught a glimpse of the rising sun glinting off the communications repeater this morning (8/26/14) from the ticket booth at the Wildlife Center in Portage. Of course, I had no idea what it was until I did this Google search. Thanks for satisfying my curiosity.
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